Rion turned to Sam. “Yes, sir?”
“Please take Autumn and Luke Oaken to our largest guest cabin. I will send Ret to retrieve the rest of their party.”
Rion was about to say something when Autumn remembered Kyndel and Ember, who were still in the woods. “Oh!” she said. “One of our party is injured. She has several broken ribs and I’m not sure what else. Is there a Healer here that she could see?”
Sam nodded. “Of course. She can see our Potioness, Jynx.”
“She’s lying in a patch of trees just off the center of town.”
“No worries,” Sam assured her. “Your friend will be perfectly healthy in no time.”
Autumn thanked him and followed Rion out of the log cabin.
The town of Onyx Forest was made up of several straight rows of cabins. Between these rows lay narrow dirt roads which all led to the center of town where the earlier battle had taken place. The air still smelled of ashes and burnt flesh. Autumn wrinkled her nose in disgust and remembered the sounds of the warlocks mourning their loved ones and was once again filled with an all-consuming hatred for Victor and Vyra Vaun.
“Here we are,” Rion said, stopping at a cabin situated at the end of one of the many rows. Like the others, it looked like an average sized log cabin, but, as with Sam’s living quarters, the outside appearance was deceiving. This cabin had a magnificent living room full of comfortable looking furniture and more animal skins. Rion informed them that there were eight rooms with two beds in each.
“Thank you very much,” Luke said, shaking Rion’s hand.
“I hope you find everything to your liking,” he said, turning his gaze on Autumn.
“I’m sure we—” Autumn stopped, looking into Rion’s green eyes. Green like emeralds. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.
She knew who he reminded her of now.
Enemy or Bestie
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Uh, Autumn?” Luke said.
She was still looking, wide-eyed, up at Rion, who was frowning down at her now, an unreadable look in his eyes—eyes that were identical to a certain Atrum she knew. But how? How was this possible? Was this, in fact, Victor in disguise? No. That was stupid. It was just his eyes. His exact eyes.
“Autumn,” Luke repeated.
Rion broke their gaze before Autumn did. “Enjoy your time here,” he muttered and left through the front door.
Luke shot Autumn a strange look. “Dude. What’s your problem?”
“Does Rion remind you of someone?” Autumn asked distractedly, staring at the now shut door.
“Brad Pitt?”
Autumn sighed. Of course Luke wouldn’t notice something like the color of Rion or Victor’s eyes. She decided to keep her thoughts to herself before jumping to any conclusions. Lots of people had the same color of eyes. No one else Autumn knew had emerald eyes, but still, it could happen.
“Yeah…” Autumn said absently. “That’s who I was thinking of.”
“I am not drinking that,” Kyndel stated, turning her nose away from the goblet the Potioness, Jynx, was holding in front of her. Like the rest of the inhabitants of Onyx Forest, Jynx was stunningly beautiful and equally as mysterious.
“They aren’t going to poison you,” Autumn said in exasperation. “They’re our allies.”
“Just drink the damn stuff, Kyndel,” Ember said.
Kyndel glared at the two girls in resentment.
“You know, when that pain potion wears off you’ll be sorry you didn’t listen to us,” Autumn said.
“Yeah,” Ember agreed. “Would you rather drink a potion that may or may not be poison or feel like you’re being stabbed repeatedly every time you take a breath?”
“What kind of a question is that?” Kyndel looked from Autumn and Ember, to Jynx, to the goblet full of potion that Jynx claimed would instantly heal her broken ribs. “Fine,” she said, taking the goblet from Jynx and draining it in one gulp.
She grimaced and pulled her shirt up above her ribs. Autumn watched in morbid fascination as the bones beneath Kyndel’s skin seemed to move on their own accord, fitting back into their rightful places.
“That’s revolting,” Kyndel said as her face turned a pale shade of green.
Ember watched in amazement. “That’s awesome.”
“Can I go now?” Kyndel asked Jynx, dropping her shirt to cover her now seemingly healed ribs.
“I’m afraid not,” Jynx said, shaking her head. “You need to be monitored overnight so I can make sure there are no unwanted side effects. This potion hasn’t actually been used on elves before.”
Kyndel looked at her in horror. “You’re telling me this now?”
“You can have one of your friends stay with you if you’d like,” Jynx proposed.
Autumn didn’t know if “friends” would be the correct word to describe the relationship between the three girls, but there was no denying that they now shared an unspoken understanding that they had one another’s backs so to say.
“I’ll stay with her,” Ember offered. Autumn was surprised by this at first, but then remembered Ember’s obsession with Healing. Of course she would want to spend as much time in Jynx’s tent as possible. Autumn looked to Kyndel to see how she felt about this. She was looking at Ember with surprise, but didn’t seem particularly put off by the idea.
Autumn didn’t argue, and left Kyndel and Ember in the Potions Tent, running smack into the back of a warlock.
“Oh, sorry, sir,” she said, looking up and feeling a jolt as her eyes met Rion’s emerald ones.
“It’s quite all right,” he said, beginning to walk away.
“Wait!”
He paused and looked warily back at her. “Can I help you, Miss Oaken?”
“Uh, call me Autumn,” she said. “Have we, um…have we met before?”
He looked away from her, avoiding eye contact. “I don’t believe so,” he said. “If you’ll excuse me—”
“It’s just, your eyes—”
“I must be going,” he said and rushed away from her before she could say anything else.
That night Autumn’s mind was particularly restless. She couldn’t stop thinking of Rion and Victor and those green eyes. Crystal was already fast asleep in her bed, her breathing deep and slow like a melancholy melody. Autumn figured Crystal wouldn’t mind if she Sang herself to sleep like she usually did when sleep evaded her. She Sang a slow, lilting note, harmonizing with the sound of Crystal’s breathing. Autumn’s eyes drooped closed and her body immediately relaxed into the soft, cotton mattress.
Then Autumn found herself walking aimlessly through the rows of cabins, following the sound of footsteps crunching on the pine needles littering the ground. She saw a dark shape ahead of her, the shape of a man. The shadow man kept shooting furtive glances over his shoulder at her. Each time he turned his head, there was a flash of green light. The shadow man entered the center of Onyx Forest, where there were no trees to cover up the moonlight glistening off of his golden blond hair.
“Rion!” Autumn called to him. He stopped walking, revolving slowly on his heel, and turned to face her. She approached him cautiously. He watched her with a vacant expression. “Are you all right?” she asked, now directly in front of him. A strange feeling came over her when his eyes locked onto hers—uneasiness, fear, and curiosity all rolled up in one. Fear began to dominate these feelings as she watched Rion’s pupils slowly dilate, spreading over the emerald green irises like water on a hardwood floor, until the emeralds turned to onyx.
“Rion?” she said. Then both of his hands flashed forward, wrapping themselves around her neck. Her vision went black for a second and when it returned she was no longer looking at Rion, but was staring up into the flawless face of Victor Vaun.
Autumn sat upright in her bed, taking deep gulps of air. Crystal was already awake and looked over at her with raised eyebrows.
“Bad dream?” she said.
“You could say that.”
; That morning Kyndel was released from Jynx’s care. Not everyone was necessarily glad to see her back, and Autumn pretended that she was one of them, keeping up her act.
The fourteen Warriors congregated outside of their cabin hoping the warlocks would become accustomed to the sight of them. While the older warlocks seemed unimpressed, the younger ones, on the other hand, thought the Warrior’s Powers were “totally awesome.” A group of young warlocks soon surrounded the Warriors, bombarding them with countless questions.
“Can you hear better than us with those ears?” a young girl named Desireé asked.
“Uh—”
A warlock boy cut her off. “I heard you killed ten Shadows at once. Is that true?”
“Show us how you fight!” a girl named Tara called out louder than all the others. She seemed to be the leader of their little group.
“We can do that,” Luke agreed.
All of the Warriors—except for Kyndel, who had been asked to do as little physical activity as possible for the next few days—lined up across from one another. Autumn and Avery stood opposite Eden and Lucian.
Fighting erupted down the line and Autumn immediately pounced on Eden, knowing she would have already covered her in Silence, making her Song powerless. They rolled around on the ground until Autumn had her pinned. Avery wasn’t as quick as Autumn, though, and was staring dazedly ahead of him as Lucian Hypnotized him, getting ready to attack. Autumn leaped off of Eden and jumped in between Lucian and Avery. Her body went still. The uncomfortable feeling of being unable to move took over. As soon as it came, it left as Avery tackled Lucian to the ground. He let out a grunt of protest.
Eden pulled Autumn down as well, but she slithered out of her grasp like a panicked snake. Autumn pulled Eden’s arm securely behind her so she couldn’t escape. Autumn counted to three and let her go, declaring herself the winner.
Eden clapped Autumn on the back. “Well done, Oaken.”
Avery managed to beat Lucian as well. They were shaking hands with the other two, just as a piercing scream rang out. Autumn looked wildly around until she found the source. Ember. She and Forrest had been fighting against Jastin and Charlotte. Jastin’s eyes were wide and he was holding his hands up in front of him. Autumn looked from him to Ember and realization washed over her. Whatever had happened to Ember to make her so shut off from the world, whatever made her so hostile, had just flashed through her mind thanks to Jastin’s Power which conjured up the worst, most painful memories and feelings imaginable.
His face looked tortured. Everyone had stopped fighting.
Autumn approached her cautiously. “Ember?” she said, reaching out to touch her.
Ember ripped Autumn’s hand away and Autumn flinched, looking down at her hand to see an angry burn in the shape of a handprint blossoming on her wrist. Ember climbed to her feet and pushed past everyone in her way.
“What the hell was that?” Jack said, looking at Jastin.
“I just looked at her for a second. I didn’t know it would hurt her so badly,” he said, sounding terrible.
“You didn’t mean to hurt her,” Charlotte said, resting a hand on his shoulder.
“That was so swift,” Tara, the warlock girl, said in a carrying voice. Apparently the word swift was a warlock term for cool. “Can you teach us how to fight like that?”
The Warriors all glanced at her and the other eager looking young warlocks, having temporarily forgotten they had been watching.
“Uh, sure,” Autumn said. This was mostly to get everyone’s mind off of Ember and also because she remembered the success she’d had with the mermaidens, Isabella and Yvonne. She was hoping the same would be true with these young ones.
The Warriors spent the rest of the day teaching the young warlocks how to fight like them. Autumn and Crystal helped Tara and Desireé, the most outgoing girls of the bunch. Tara, the brunette, talked extremely fast and loud. Desireé, the blonde with round blue eyes, often broke out into fits of giggles.
“Okay,” Autumn said. “You have to remember that when you’re fighting Shadows and Atrums that they’re completely reckless. They don’t usually think before they act and are just attacking to kill.”
Tara and Desireé’s eyes went wide.
“It’s okay,” Crystal said. “They usually go after the older creatures because they’re the biggest threat. They rarely go after the young ones.”
“Knowing how to defend yourself won’t hurt, though.”
Autumn and Crystal showed them a number of different holds and taught them how to get out of each one. The girls caught on quickly and by the end of the day Tara and Desireé had nearly mastered everything they’d been taught. Autumn watched with pride as Tara managed to release herself from a particularly difficult hold Crystal had put her in. Desireé had taken everything they said to heart about not holding back and elbowed Autumn hard in the side to release herself from the hold.
Autumn groaned and clutched her throbbing side. “Good job.”
“You guys are so swift,” Desireé said to them.
“Thanks,” Crystal said. “You’re pretty swift yourselves.”
Tara and Desireé beamed at her.
“You should totally come to our dance tonight,” Tara said.
“Tara—” Desireé protested, giving her a warning look.
“What?” Tara waved a dismissive hand at her friend. “My dad won’t mind.”
Autumn turned to Tara. “Who’s your dad?”
“Sam Remington.”
“The Chief Warlock?” Autumn asked, with raised eyebrows.
Tara nodded proudly.
Of course he was.
“You have the best luck with making friends with little royal creatures,” Luke said, shaking his head in disbelief after she told him and Avery about Tara Remington’s invitation.
Autumn chuckled. “I know.”
“So are we going to this dance?” Avery asked.
Autumn shrugged. “I think we should.”
“Of course we should,” Luke said enthusiastically. “It’s about time we had some fun on this damn quest.”
Autumn went around to the other rooms of their cabin to invite the rest of the Warriors to the dance.
“Course we will,” Charlotte said, indicating her and Jastin, who was laying on the bed next to her, staring gloomily up at the ceiling. Autumn wasn’t sure if this was because of what had happened with Ember or because he had to go to a dance. Autumn was about to leave when Charlotte said, “Hey, have you seen Kyndel?”
“No. When’s the last time you saw her?”
“Well, she was watching us fight and then Ember freaked out and left, and I haven’t seen her since,” Charlotte said, sounding worried.
Autumn frowned, thinking back. She thought that was the last time she’d seen Kyndel too.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Autumn said. “I’ll go look around outside and see if I can find her.”
Charlotte smiled gratefully. “Let me know if you do.”
Autumn left Charlotte’s room and the Warrior cabin. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but somehow ended up at the place where Autumn and Ember had brought Kyndel the day before. As she approached the spot, she heard voices.
Lo and behold it was Ember and Kyndel. They were laughing and talking like old friends. Autumn hesitated, but decided to interrupt.
“Hey,” Autumn said, entering the patch of pine trees and causing the two girls to jump from the suddenness of her appearance.
“Shit, Oaken!” Ember growled, clutching at her chest. “You scared the hell out of me.”
Autumn looked with raised eyebrows at the scene before her. Ember and Kyndel were sitting cross-legged in front of one another, leaning forward so that their faces were only about a foot apart. Kyndel looked down at her lap, blushing.
“Uh, sorry. Charlotte was worried about you,” Autumn said to Kyndel. “And we’ve all been invited to this dance thing in the center of town tonight if y’all want to come.”
<
br /> “No thanks,” Ember said immediately, with narrowed eyes. She picked up a few dry pine needles and began pulling them apart. They sparked and sizzled at the touch of her hands.
“I think we should go,” Kyndel said softly to Ember, whose gaze shot up to stare into her tawny eyes. “Come on, Em, it might be fun.”
Em? Autumn’s surprised eyebrows had now disappeared into her hairline.
“Fine,” Ember grumbled, standing and brushing pine needles off of her. She reached down and pulled Kyndel to her feet. Autumn tried not to give them a weird look. Yesterday they were enemies, now it appeared they were besties. Or perhaps more.
The three of them traveled back to their cabin in silence. When Ember closed the door to her room behind her, Autumn pulled Kyndel into the small, empty kitchen.
“What are you doing?” Autumn murmured under her breath.
“What do you mean?”
“With Ember. Is she—?”
“I don’t know!” Kyndel hissed, looking wildly around to make sure no one was listening. “Why does it matter? We’re just friends.”
“I just don’t want you to get your hopes up about something happening between you two.”
Kyndel’s eyes narrowed. “Listen, Autumn, just because I let you in on my secret, doesn’t mean I appointed you as my protector. I can take care of myself, okay? You and I both know that Ember needs a friend right now.”
“I agree that she needs a friend. I just hope you aren’t expecting anything out of this.”
“I’m not! Just drop it, okay?”
“Fine,” Autumn said, turning to leave. Kyndel grabbed her arm, pulling her back.
“I’m sorry,” she said sincerely. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Oh?”
“I might want more out of this than Ember does, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be her friend, right?” she asked, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than anything.
Autumn afforded her a supportive look. “As strange as it is to admit it, I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I know,” Kyndel said. “But if I try to keep my feelings safe forever then nothing will ever happen, good or bad.”
Ash (The Underground Series Book 2) Page 16
